Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Italian mountaineer dies after rockfall on the Matterhorn

Mountaineer falls to his death after falling rocks on the Matterhorn
Mountaineer falls to his death after falling rocks on the Matterhorn Keystone-SDA

An Italian mountaineer fell to his death on the Matterhorn on Monday. The 58-year-old sustained fatal injuries.

The man wanted to climb the 4,478-metre peak in canton Valais via the Hörnligrat ridge with a companion as part of a two-man rope team. At around 3,650 metres above sea level, the two alpinists were caught off guard by a rockfall during their ascent, according to the cantonal police.

+Sign up to get the most important news from Switzerland directly in your inbox

For reasons still unclear, one of the two climbers fell approximately 100 metres down the east face. The rescue team that was called out could only confirm the climber’s death. The public prosecutor’s office, in collaboration with the cantonal police, has launched an investigation to establish the exact circumstances of the accident.

A woman had already had a fatal accident on the Matterhorn on Thursday. The mountaineer fell about 100 metres down the east face from an altitude of around 3,460 metres above sea level.

Translated from German by DeepL/sp

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

Picture of a bank

More

Banque Havilland starts shutting down Swiss units

This content was published on Banque Havilland SA, a private bank owned by the family of close friends of Prince Andrew, has begun the process of closing its operations in Switzerland.

Read more: Banque Havilland starts shutting down Swiss units

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR